


cross the line

by Alectrona (DreamyRequiem)



Series: don't think twice [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, kh3 spoilers!!!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2019-11-04 06:32:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17893322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamyRequiem/pseuds/Alectrona
Summary: he woke up, and forgot how exactly he got there.she woke up, and knew how exactly she got there.they had no idea how to find each other in this new world.at least they had someone to pull some strings to get them to partner up in this new Game, right?





	1. day 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d as my usual beta hasn't played kh3 yet!!
> 
> uuuh just some kh4 speculation (already??) and me crying about how if they have twewy as the beginning world in kh4 and they DON'T bring strelitzia back via this world i'm gonna be sad
> 
> like seriously the whole point of twewy is people getting a second chance at life.

Sweat clung to Sora's forehead as he looked up towards sky. The sun was raising and painted the sky with pinks, yellows, and purples. The clouds drifting past were also painted a similar color but Sora's attention was drawn away from the sky to the skyscraper buildings around him.

San Fransokyo was the only world he could think of with buildings as tall as these. The Grid and La Cite des Cloches were close but...the former had been near empty, with all the programs hiding away from Clu's sight. The latter had only small clusters of people, with the most crowded being Esmeralda's camp.

He shook his head and reached out to the first person near him. "Hey, excuse me--?" His hand went straight through their shoulder and Sora stopped, pulling his hand back. He stared at it, confused and just a little afraid. Why had that happened?

The last thing he remembered was...Right, he'd gone to pull Kairi out from the darkness, like he had his other friends earlier. He'd gotten to her and they'd gone home to Destiny Islands. No, wait. That wasn't quite right either.

Sora had...brought her there? And then...he can't remember.

He patted his pockets to look for his gummiphone and found them completely empty. Not just of items but of every single gift he'd gotten from his friends. The binders were gone as were the keychains--worst of all, Kairi's lucky charm was completely missing.

Panic gripped his heart briefly as he patted his pockets frantically. It can't be gone, Kairi had given it to him when he--did something. Sora may not remember what he had done but it doesn't matter. It was **_gone_**.

Eventually, though, he found something folded over and over again in his pocket. It took at least a minute to completely unfold it. The note said this:

_Hey, Sora! Thanks for all the help in the Realm of Sleep~! I owed you and Riku a favor so when I found you drifting off to the realm of the dead, I thought I'd return the favor I owe you._

_I found someone else you can have as a partner for the Game, who seemed to be chasing you for some reason. She's...somewhere, with a note to tell her to go find you. Lastly, I had to take your stuff as price for the Game._

_You can get it back when you win._

_-Joshua._

Sora letout a frustrated sigh. At least he knew where Kairi's lucky charm was now, even if he didn't like it. Now, though...who could've been chasing him? The first thought was that it was Kairi but he couldn't figure out why she would've followed him into the darkness.

He looked up. What was he supposed to do now? Besides look for a girl he didn't know, Sora wasn't sure what else he was meant to do. What was this 'Game' Joshua kept mentioning? And furthermore, was this the Shibuya Neku had mentioned?

The thought of Neku, another friend of his, cheered him up a bit. Maybe he could see him while he was here? Though...How could he, when no one else could see him?

Something falling out of the note drew his attention. Sora knelt down and picked it up. It was just a plain black pin with only a white skull design on it. He turned it back and forth, trying to figure out what it was for.

Eventually he gave up and stuck it back into his pocket. As soon as he pulled his hand back from the pocket, a sharp pain burned through his entire hand. Sora let out a sharp breath and pulled his glove back to see if he'd accidentally pricked himself.

On his hand was a timer that was clicking down from one hundred and twenty minutes.

"What...is this?" Sora wondered out loud, clenching and unclenching his hand. It still hurt a little but not as bad as it had moments ago. Why and how did he get this on his hand?

Sora let out a sharp breath and looked around. Maybe he just...needed to wonder around and figure out what he was supposed to do from here? It was better than just standing around without knowing what to do.

So began his journey around the crosswalks. Crossroads? That was what the people seemed to call it as far as he knew. He shook his head and jogged to each of the roads leading away and was meant by invisible walls. Like, literally invisible walls. When he touched them, little hexagons would appear to block him.

Weird. He thought he'd gotten away from these sort of things since the World that Never Was.

He kept looking until he finally found a path that he could travel through. As he passed through, he swore he heard a strange static pass behind him. As soon as it passed, however, he felt like he'd just imagined it.

Sora shook his head and continued down the path to a courtyard like area. People seemed to be running back and forth, meeting up together. This seemed like a meeting place and for whatever reason that made him smile.

Actually...Is that who he thought it was?

"Neku!" Sora yelled, jogging forward. "Hey, it's been forever--" His hand passed through Neku's shoulder and Sora's expression fell. Oh. He forgot.

Neku's only reaction to Sora's touch was to shiver slightly. "Weird," He said, "What was that?"

"What was what, Neku?" The dark haired girl with him asked.

He shrugged. "Felt a shiver up my spine, that's all." Neku fiddled with the wire attached to his headphones.

Sora just looked at him with a bit of a despair. What was he supposed to do now?, he wondered as Neku and the girl walked away, chatting about things Sora didn't pay much attention to. It wasn't nearly as bad then, but the despair tasted like the same as when his friends had been taken from by that demon tornado.

Static roared behind him and Sora instinctively spun around. Strangely, his keyblade wouldn't summon as he eyeballed some strange creatures that appeared before him. They weren't heartless or nobodies, and there was no way they could be dreameaters. So what the heck in the worlds where they?

They skittered at him, despite being strangely colored frogs, and leapt directly at him. Their legs hit his arm and their mere touch made his arm feel like it had been dunked into a pool of lava. Sora stifled a yell and stepped back, clutching his arm to his chest.

He flinched as they aimed to attack again but blinked as he spotted someone in gray and black appear and ram into two of the frogs. "Are you okay?!" They yelled, their hands touching Sora's shoulder as they rushed over to him.

"Uh, Hi? Yeah I'm okay?" Sora faltered, feelings confused by the person's almost frantic examination. "Do I...know you?" Their voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't figure out why they did.

They looked up. "You don't...oh, right. I didn't really have my body then..." They tucked one of their pigtails behind their shoulder where it hung down to their knees. "It's, um. Me, the star you met in the Final World?"

Sora stared and then his mouth fell open. "Whaaaaat?!" He yelped, feeling completely shocked as he jolted back. This was the girl he'd met back then? But how was she here, when she was stuck there?

"I'll explain more later," She said, "But first...Do you know how we can fight these things? My note said something about becoming partners and pacts, but I didn't understand more than that..." She fretted, clearly uncertain as to what the note meant.

He tilted his head at the frogs as they approached them again. "...Mine mentioned something about becoming partners with someone I knew? So I guess that means you: Maybe all we have to do is want to become partners?"

The girl hesitated before reaching out one hand. "Okay then. Do you want to be partners with me?"

"Yeah, sure!" Sora chirped, reaching forward and clasped hers. There was a light show with brilliant purple and blue lights flickering around them. Sora pulled his hand back in surprise and the lights faded away.

She hesitated once more. "Do you think it worked...?" The girl wondered.

Sora frowned. "I'm not sure." As if to remind the two they were there the frogs suddenly leapt forward and it was if the world had shifted around them. Sora jolted and looked around. It looked like the area he was just in save for the fact it was devoid of all people and the girl he'd just partnered with. Yet...he could tell she was still there, somehow.

At least he could summon his keyblade again. He lashed out with the keyblade and smashed it on the first of the frogs. It took a few hits before it crumbled into the same static it had come from. Maybe that was what it was? Static?

Weird.

He tried pulling on his magic to cast a waterga or just any of his magic put all that came was a weak fire spell. Sora made a face: Guess dying twice in only a couple days had an effect on your magic, huh? It still did damage, though, as the frog he aimed at staggered away.

A blow that seemed to come from thing air smashed into the back of one of the other frogs--four in total, including the one he'd already destroyed--causing it to stagger. Sora took that as an invitation to smash his keyblade on its head. It broke apart into static after that.

Sora made short work of the remaining two static frogs, considering they were both low on health.

As soon as they were all gone, he was back in the crowds with the girl next to him. She was starting at her hands in surprise. "They weren't very difficult to beat." She murmured softly.

"Yeah, they fell pretty quickly, huh?" Sora put his hands on his hips as he looked down at the hand his keyblade had just been in. He was used to enemies soaking up damage like sponges, not falling after a handful of hits.

The girl nodded and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. Sora finally gave her a quick look over, noting the gray hoodie she wore with the black stripes on the sleeves, the pink lines along the sides, and the gold lining on the inside. She wore a black long skirt and seemed to have a white shirt under the hoodie, judging by what he osuld see hanging out from under the hoodie.

She tapped her white boots and patter her hoodie. "D-does it look okay? I mean...I just woke up like this so I can find something else I think..." She flustered in embarrassment.

"Naw, I think it looks nice!" Sora declared. "But, uh. What's your name? And how did you get here?"

He blinked as she tugged on her ponytail, seemingly even more embarrassed. "I didn't tell you before, did I? I'm Strelitzia. I think I ended up here because I saw you falling through the Final World. I...I didn't want you to disappear..." Strelitzia looked down at the ground, mumbling something under her breath.

"What was that?" Sora asked.

Strelitzia looked down at her feet. "I'm...You were really kind. I didn't want to see you die so I tried to slow you down. I thought if you just ended up in the Final World again you could pull yourself back together again, but...Just before I could find you, I woke up here." Strelitzia kept tugging on her ponytail.

That made him feel...weird. He was usually the one trying to save other people's hearts, not the one being saved. It wasn't a bad weird--heck, it made him feel good too. It was just that she hardly knew him, but just because he was kind to her, she wanted to help him.

"You're pretty kind too, Strelitzia." He told her.

It only served to make her blush and fluster. He grinned and remembered something kind of important. "Oh, right! I can't remember if I told you or now, but my name's Sora!" He punched a fist to his chest with a grin.

Strelitzia tilted her head and smiled. "Nice to meet you, Sora." She looked around. "Do you know what we're supposed to do from now?"

He looked down and crossed his arms. "I think...we need to finish this game? And then we can get our bodies back or something! What do you think?" Sora looked up at her, waiting for her unput.

"I think we don't have a choice. So...Let's do that!" Strelitzia's smile widened into a grin. It was the happiest he'd seen her since...well, meeting her.

Sora gave her a thumbs up. "Okay, let's go! I bet here's someone we can talk to figure out what we're supposed to do next, right?"

Strelitzia nodded in agreement and the duo walked back the way Sora had come. He briefly wished he could talk to Neku, say hello, but also knew that wasn't going to be possible right now. Later, when they both got out of this game, he'd say hi.

He'd even introduce Strelitzia to Neku and his friends! After all, no one could have too many friends.

Could never have too many bonds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [jazz hands] hi, i'm writing more strelitzia fic. i love my baby bird girl and you'll pry that love from my cold dead hands.
> 
> and then i'll come back to life to thwack you to death with a keyblade and take it back.
> 
> anyway here's the outfit for strelitzia: https://www.deviantart.com/dreamyrequiem/art/ideal-flower-kh-786782838
> 
> a second one with my design for strelitzia from my other kairi/stre series: https://www.deviantart.com/dreamyrequiem/art/bluebirds-kh-786807711
> 
> EDIT: I FORGOT. Uh, it isn't mentioned her, but strelitzia primarily fights with the medals she earned while she was a dandelion! her keyblade isn't currently coming to her but that's less because she can't use it anymore and more that she's got her own ptsd hang ups on it. thaaaat's just what happens when you get killed by practically the same weapon you use.


	2. day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d. feel free to let me know if i misspelled anything!
> 
> Okay, so now i've got a plea for everyone: Please, please, don't send death threats or hate mail to the dev team for kh! They've got so much in their plates right now--all the time really--and sending such things is cruel and unnecessary. Also very illegal. Don't involve people from pixar and disney in the fandom drama. don't spread misinformation regarding the translation of the jp ver, especially the misinformation that it was mistranslated as the jp and eng teams worked together on the translated script!
> 
> if you were disappointed or unhappy about kh3, that's fine and fair. I'm not asking you to be happy about it. I'm asking you to...let it go. If you're so disappointed or angry about it that you want to do anything of the above? Please consider returning the game and not playing kh anymore. it'll be better for your mental health in the long run to let something go that might be harming.
> 
> And please, please take the message of forgiveness and kindness and friendship from kingdom hearts to...well heart.
> 
> That is all.

Strelitzia was pacing in front of him, looking distracted and worried. Sora tracked her movement and wondered what was bothering her. The previous day she'd been pretty calm and almost excited to have her body back, even if she seemed confused by the clothes. Not that Sora could blame her--he'd be a little confused if he woke up in different clothes too.

(Wait...hadn't that happened already?)

He fiddled with his gummiphone, which he'd found after waking up a hour ago. Everything that had been on it, including numbers and messages, were gone. It was a little depressing, because...because the photo they'd taken before they went to fight Xehanort was gone now. He'd sent a copy to both Kairi and Riku, but not having one for himself was upsetting.

As he was fiddling with the phone, Strelitzia stopped pacing. "Sora." She began, her back to him. "Do you know what we're supposed to do now? The man in that red hoodie yesterday said we finished yesterday's mission. Does that mean there's going to be another one? And if there is, what do we do?"

"Finish the mission?" Sora offered.

Strelitzia fussed in front of him, clearly working herself into a panic. "But what if we don't get one? What're we supposed to do then? We haven't gotten one yet, but I have no idea how we're supposed to get one..." She tugged on one of her ponytails.

Sora stood up and snagged her hands. "It'll be fine! I think they'll give it to us through my gummiphone--that's probably why I got it back. And we'll get it when we get it, okay? Don't worry!" Sora gave her his widest smiles. Whatever it ended up being, Sora had faith they'd be able to handle it.

"I--O-okay." Strelitzia stuttered and gently pulled her hands from Sora's grip. She still seemed worried to him but had calmed from her near frenzy panic. She pressed her hands against her stomach. "Hey, Sora? What do you think will happen once we finish these missions?"

He paused. That...wasn't something he'd thought much about it, because he just assumed they'd leave and maybe he'd take her to Destiny Islands so he could a) reunite with Riku and Kairi and b) let Strelitzia have a place to just get used to being alive again. Other than that, he hadn't really thought about it.

Shrugging, Sora said, "Just get used to things not being chaotic? I mean, once we get out, we'll probably be able to go to anywhere we want--but I was going to go home to Destiny Islands." He paused. "Do you wanna come? I mean, you don't have to, there's loads of places you can go to! Like Radiant Garden!"

Strelitzia clasped her hands in front of her and opened her mouth to respond in some capacity when his gummiphone went off. They both jolted and Sora looked down at his phone. The screen declared 'New Message!' in bright red text.

They exchanged looks and Sora opened the message. In a darker red text that was almost black, Sora read as follows: **_We've been having a lot of radio interference. Find the source of the interference and slay it, so we can keep some good old tunes playing._**

"Interference...?" Sora tilted his head and grimaced. What did that even mean? Maybe it meant something like those weird frogs from yesterday? But if that was the source, where were they for them to fight?

He paused as Strelitzia peered over his shoulder to read the message. Her eyes lit up as she read it and she cheerfully said, "A riddle! I love riddles. Can I...?" She hesitantly held out her hand and Sora dropped the phone into her hand.

Sora grinned. "I hope you can figure it out because I'm lost," He said.

She tilted her head as she read it. "I think...It's not too hard, for someone who really likes riddles. I think the interference is at a radio station? Or maybe just a place you can hear a radio at?"

"How do you figure?" He asked, curious.

Strelitzia tapped the screen, her finger on the part that said 'radio.' "'We're having a lot of radio interference' is supposed to be the clue to the location. And a radio station would make the most sense, right?" She tilted her head up at him.

He hummed. That...made a lot of sense. Actually it seemed pretty obvious when she explained it like that. Sora grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Okay, so how do we find the station?" He asked.

"I think it might be near a music store? Because it mentions playing some 'good old tunes'....maybe an older music store." Strelitzia hummed as she poked at the screen with a worried frown.

Sora crossed his arms and tapped his elbow. "Sounds good to me! Though....any ideas on how to find our way there?" He wondered.

Strelitzia grinned for the first time as she handed him his gummiphone. "I've got you covered! The black and white pins we woke up with apparently help with directions? Or something like that? When I held it and thought hard about finding a meeting place, I kept hearing people say 'Hachiko', which was where we met."

She looked pretty proud of herself and he smiled. In the time he'd known her, the girl had been nervous and shy. Too timid to try and make her own way--but maybe she'd finally be able to do that. It was always nice to see someone find a way forward.

"Okay, so we use the pins to find our way there!" He chirped. "Let's get started!"

Sora plunged his hand into his pocket where he had left the pin and pulled it out while he stuffed his phone into his other pocket. He held the pin in his hands and closed his eyes, trying to think 'radio station by a music store' as hard as he could. Which...was a little hard as he was never good at focusing on just one thing.

Instead of stuff about a radio station, he heard people complaining about things. Some complained about work and there were others that were happy about things. A couple of them were thinking about dates, though on opposite ends of the positivity spectrum.

Next to him, Strelitzia was doing the same thing but seemed to be having a bit more of a head way on it. Sora stopped focusing and let the buzz of people talking or thinking or whatever it was fade away. He waited until Strelitzia did the same and tucked the pin away into a pocket he couldn't see.

He sighed. "I didn't get anything. I kept getting distracted." Sora tucked his hands behind his head. "Did you get anything?"

"I think so? A couple of people thinking about Cyco Records....so maybe it's near there? AMX was there too so maybe..." She tilted her head with a frown. "I'm not sure where Cyco Records is, though." Strelitzia sighed.

Sora pumped a fist. "But it's a name!! We could find a map, maybe? And then we can get there without any problems!" Maps were always a good idea. He hadn't used any on his first journey but he'd always ended up getting lost as a result. Jiminy started drawing them out on later journeys so that didn't happen again.

Strelitzia smiled softly. "Okay. Let’s go, then?"

He nodded in agreement and turned to go to a store, hoping they'd have a map when he heard his gummiphone beep again. Sora blinked and took it out, peering down at the message. In dark red, it said: **_Whoops, I forgot! You've got 2 hours!_**

What? Sora poked at the screen in confusion, wondering what that was about. In the next moment, his hand burned and he fumbled with his phone. What, what, what the heck? He grimaced and looked at his right hand, tossing his phone to his left. Displayed over his covered palm were holographic numbers that were ticking down.

At his side, Strelitzia was also looking at her hand. While she too had numbers on her hand hers were more...burned into her hand. Sora was pretty sure if he wasn't wearing gloves he'd probably see the same look of a timer.

"Okay," He said, "Looks like we're on a time limit, huh?"

At least they'd already started working on trying to find the place they needed to go. It meant they'd have more time to be sure that Cyco Records was the music store they needed to find.

* * *

Sora was the one who, in the end, found the road to Cyco Records. It was in some backstreets that were pasted with posters and ads. It was these ads that tipped them off that they were in the right area.

After all, while they were old, they also mentioned a radio station nearby. One that, even if it wasn't being used, could be their destination.

He could almost cheer at the possibility. It wasn't that he didn't like wandering around the city they found themselves in but more that...he didn't much like the timer on his hand. Not the faint burning pain from it nor what would happen if it ran out.

It had barely hit the one hour mark when they made it to the seemingly abandoned radio station. Strelitzia tried to the door and groaned when it didn't even budge. "How do we get in...?" She wondered.

Sora was about to wonder the same thing when a mental voice (that sounded suspiciously like Yuffie...) yelled 'YOU HAVE A GIANT MAGIC KEY.'

...Right, he knew that! Sora closed his eyes and willed the keyblade into hand. With his eyes closed he didn't noticed Strelitzia's minute flinch nor her turning her gaze from the weapon. "We unlock the door!" Sora declared as he pointed the end at said door.

"I...forgot about that feature..." Strelitzia muttered as the lock clicked.

He decided to ignore that: It wasn't like he didn't want to know how she knew about keyblades but...something about asking felt insensitive. And he could already hear and see the disappointed lectures and looks he'd get for Riku and especially Kairi if he pushed it.

Sora plunged into the darkness of the radio station, Strelitzia on his heels. Holding up her hand, Strelitzia summoned a couple of spheres of light that fluttered around them. "Do you want me to try and light up the path too?" She asked.

"That'd be super cool!" Sora cheered. Queen Minnie had done something similar with her Pearl, though that had been more of an attack than a lantern. He'd just be interested to see more of it more than anything else.

It looked like she smiled in the dark and summoned more spheres of light, sending them out to the corners of the abandoned radio station. The main lobby they stood in looked trashed, like someone had thrown around all the chairs there and tossed the drawers of the front desk in front of on said desk. Hallways spiraled out beyond the lobby and Sora peered towards them.

She followed his gaze towards them and shivered. "That's...really dark." She whispered, clasping her hands in front of her. Strelitzia seemed more nervous than Sora thought was warranted, like she expected someone to jump from the shadows and attack them.

...In fairness, that is exactly what heartless do.

"It's okay!" Sora reassured her. "We're together and can watch each other's backs. Ready to go?"

Strelitzia hesitated before nodding. "Y-yeah, okay." She edged forward, wary as wary could be. He trailed after and she glanced over her shoulder at him before looking forward again. Surprisingly, she seemed to grow less tense with Sora at her back.

One day he'd ask about that. Not today--not when they were on a timer. But one day! They were friends now, after all, and Sora didn't want her to feel scared when she had someone watching her back. Though it was just a little sad that she felt like she had to watch her back in general.

Shaking his head, Sora kept in pace behind her. None of those weird creatures had appeared nor were there any of the heartless he was used to. You'd think the heartless would be abundent in such a dark place, yet not a single one had appeared. Did they just not know he was there, somehow?

Eventually they stopped and peered into the room at the end of the hallway. All the other doors were locked and while they could open it with Sora's keyblade they might as well try the rooms that were open first.

The room at the end of the hall was two rooms in one. The other room was on the other side of a plane of glass, with a microphone hanging from the ceiling with a table beneath it. The room they were in had a bunch of tech along the walls. Sora had absolutely no idea what that tech was for.

But there was something strange in the room with the table. Almost like a distortion...

Strelitzia opened the door separating the small table room from the tech room. "Wait for me!" Sora yelped as he quickly tailed her into the room. A couple of light sphere stayed in the tech room and right outside the room, keeping those areas lit up for them.

The three light spheres in the room with them split off to cover as much of the room in light as possible. Strelitzia was gently waving a hand through the haze over the table while Sora poked at the mic. After a moment, he realized that maybe they shouldn't be doing that and raised the point to Strelitzia.

"Sometimes," She said sagely, "You have to do dumb things to get something to trigger."

...Fair point.

Sora didn't know how many times he'd dinked around with something he didn't know how to use to get something to activate. Sometimes you've just gotta do something crazy to get things done. Yet nothing actually seemed to happen as they poked the hazy area in front of them.

What were they supposed to do? Strelitzia seemed even more stumped than Sora was, who was content to continue poking it. Eventually, Streltizia pulled out her skull pin and played with it. Why, Sora didn't know, but...maybe it had something to do with the weird thing that had happened when they focused on them before. Sora had closed his eyes at the time but maybe he could see something if he used it?

Following Strelitzia's example, he missed her soft gasp as he focused on the distortion in front of him. Some strange symbol floated there, like a giant 2d head logo. Sora poked it and unlike before, where nothing had happened, the distortion reacted.

And then it felt like the ground beneath him was swept out from under him.

Sora instinctively summoned his keyblade and look at Strelitzia--who was gone. Instead, right in front of him was a strange massive elephant. Strange because like the frogs' back legs, the elephant's trunk was stylized. In fact it almost looked like the style the weird head logo had been in. It was also colored in bright fluorescent colors which didn't help the strange look of it.

"Okay...Let's do this!!" Sora dove forward and started fighting the elephant. Unlike the frogs before it, it was much tougher and took his hits without stumbling.

His magic spells did seem to make it stumble, he noticed as he flung a blizzaga at its face. He's not sure what the difference is but he's not letting that go. Time to abuse the heck out of his magic spells.

Dodge rolling under a sweep of the trunk, Sora jabbed at the throat with his keyblade. It shrieked and tried to stomp him but stumbled as if hit by something. Sora frowned: He hadn't done that but...it was again like that time with the frogs. A couple of them he hadn't touched yet they had been defeated somehow.

Sora wondered if it had something to do with Strelitzia vanishing.

Letting that train of thought go, Sora cast a thundaga and the elephant stepped back, it's lower half bumped into the walls of the room they were in. He paused and realized quite suddenly that the room had somehow gotten bigger. Sora decided he'd just been thankful for that as he really didn't want to get crushed under the elephant's feet.

He backed all the way up against the wall behind him as the elephant started stomping. With a grimace, Sora brandished his keyblade and swatted the elephant's trunk away from him. The elephant staggered to the right, away from Sora and he let out a breath.

Okay, he had room to move again. Sora took the chance to lash out at the elephant's legs and it stumbled before falling to its knees. The floor shook and Sora rolled forward with the shaking. It trumpeted its trunk and struggled to try and get back up but Sora swung a firaga into its face.

It trumpeted again and continued to struggle. Sora backed away and eyeballed the strange patches of static that was appearing all over its body. Okay...almost done! Sora swung his keyblade down and it broke under the strike into particles of visible static.

Huh, he thought as he watched its body break apart, that was tough.

Sora rolled his shoulders and cast a quick curaga to heal the damage before turning around to survey the room. He blinked and the room had dimmed and shrunken to its original size. Behind him, Strelitzia had reappeared, her hand raised as if casting a spell.

He didn't notice his keyblade had vanished with the shifted plane. "Hey, Strelitzia!" Sora called out. "Do you know what happened?"

She tilted her head at him. "I don't know what you mean...?" Strelitzia asked.

"I mean, when you vanish when we fight? You just disappeared." Sora explained.

Her eyes lit up in understanding. "Oh! I don't know? You disappeared on my end after you touched that strange symbol and then there was that colorful elephant..." Strelitzia frowned in concentration, as if to recall every single detail.

Sora laughed lightly. "Huh! Maybe we're both fighting it somehow, just not together?" Which didn't make much sense if you thought about it too hard, but Sora let it go.

"Maybe..." She trailed off and straightened. "Sora! That strange wobbly distortion...it's gone?"

Confused, he looked at the table and it was indeed gone. As if the thing they'd just defeated was the source of it. Sora blinked and then looked down at his hand and saw that the timer, which had been emblazoned there, was gone.

Wait had that been the source they were looking for. "Yeah, and so is my timer." Sora replied.

Strelitzia blinked and then looked down at her own hand. "So is my mine..." She glanced back up and frowned. Had them fighting that thing been all they needed to finish that weird mission that had been on Sora's gummiphone?

The thought made him pull out his phone. There was another messaged in dark red that said: **_Congratulations! The mission has been completed by Player Pair Strelitzia and Sora!_**

What--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final message for the day: please be kind to those around you.


	3. day 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbeta`d
> 
> did someone order an update :3c

Sora yawned as he sat up from the ground. Shibuya's ground wasn't exactly the most comfortable place to sleep and he was almost certain he was going to have back pain after this. At least that was better than having broken bones.

He looked up and spotted Strelitzia fiddling with one of the buttons they'd picked up. This one was the black one with the skull. It seemed she was listening to the mind radio...thing it was connected to.

What weird magic.

Brushing her hair, Strelitzia looked back at him. She smiled at him as she realized he was awake and tucked the button away. "Hey, how long have you been up?" She asked as she stopped at Sora's side.

"Just got up." Sora confessed, standing up from where he'd been sitting. "Did we get a new mission?"

Strelitzia shook her head. "No, it looks like we're still without anything to do." She clasped her hand in front of her with a sigh.

He tilted his head and fished out his gummiphone. The only messages on there were the ones from the previous day and he pouted slightly: He'd been hoping they'd know what was going on more.

Looking back up, Sora said, "Nothing here. Wanna wander around again?" It not like there was any shortage of stuff to look at.

Humming, Strelitzia nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sounds fun! Which way do you want to try first?" She glanced around, as if trying to find a group of people to follow.

Sora tapped a finger to his chin before grinning. Why not go the opposite way they'd gone the day before? "Let's go that way?" He suggested, pointing towards the road to the east.

"Sounds good to me!" Strelitzia cheered and hurried on ahead.

Laughing, Sora jogged after to keep up with her. The other teenager had stopped at the entrance to the next road, peering around the street as if she could divine everything or something just by people watching.

He wondered if that was something she liked to do. "Hey, so, wanna check out the shops??" Sora asked. "We won't be able to buy anything, but it might be nice you know?"

Strelitzia hummed to herself before she nodded in agreement. "Yeah sounds good to me!" She clapped her hands before she started peering into the windows of the buildings. It didn't seem like she had any idea which ones were stores--but he recognized some of the signs from his time in San Fransokyo.

"Here, this way." Sora grabbed her sleeve and tugged her around to the first of the shops. He pushed the door open and let go of Strelitzia's sleeve. She'd follow--he just trusted that she would.

"Hello, welcome!" A voice chirped ahead of them. A young man beamed at them with a uniform and Sora stared. How...? No one else could see them, up until now. How could he see them now?

He waved. "Uh, hi!" Sora offered, looking confused.

The employee tilted his head. "Is there anything I can help you with?" He asked.

Strelitzia meekly raised her hand. She said, "Um, we're just...visitors to Shibuya, so we were just looking around to see the shops. What's this shop for?"

The man blinked before he cleared his throat. "We don't get many tourists here." He confessed with some cheer. Sora couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. "But this floor is a clothing store! There's herbal medicine store upstairs and across from it upstairs is another clothing store." He seemed almost disdainful of the other clothing store.

Then again, it was probably a competitor. Which was weird to Sora: Why would you have two stores of the same type in one building? Wasn't that just bad for business?

"It's okay to look around right?" Strelitzia asked, tucking hair behind her ear nervously.

The employee stared at her for a long moment before he said, "Yes, of course." Strelitzia gave him a nervous smile before she disappeared into the store proper.

Sora grinned to himself, thanked the employee, and followed Strelitzia into the store. Said girl was peering around the racks of clothes, looking lost. Not that he could blame her--the last time he had gone clothes shopping like this, he'd just turned fourteen. Granted, he wasn't planning to buy any clothes today, but still.

He stepped up next to her. "You okay?" Sora asked.

Strelitzia jolted and then tugged nervously on one of her ponytails. "I--I've never gone shopping before?" She glanced down at her clothes. "I made my old outfit and this one...It just showed up a couple days ago, when I woke up."

Wait, made her old outfit? "You make clothes?" Sora wondered, feeling a little awed. Almost all the girls he knew were good at some sort of craft, weren't they?

She nodded. "Y-yeah, I really like designing clothes. If I hadn't been able to summon my keyblade, I would've become a designer in Daybreak Town's fashion district." Strelitzia smiled fondly, clearly remembering something she loved.

He nodded along. Yeah, that made sense. Sora would probably have become a fisherman or something back home if he hadn't summoned his keyblade either.

Wait.

"Strelitzia, you can use a keyblade???" Sora blurted out, spinning to look at her.

She stared at him for a long moment before she went bright pink. And then terribly pale. "I--Maybe." She mumbled, looking away from him and staring at a shirt. It kind of looked like she wanted to shove her face into it until she stopped breathing.

Wow, okay. "Maybe...?" Sora wondered. "I--Can you not summon it anymore??" That seemed strange to him--Why would she be able to summon it at one point and not again later?

Strelitzia clasped her hands over her chest. She continued to stare at the shirt as she said, "I dunno. I--My keyblade won't come to me. Not even in our battles with those strange monsters."

It was pretty obvious she was upset. Sora could hardly blame her--if he stopped being able to summon his keyblade, he might panic. Heck, he almost did panic earlier when he couldn't get his keyblade to come before they made that weird pact.

He frowned to himself. "Did something happen...?" Sora wondered, trying to think of what could make something like that happen.

"Maybe because I--" Strelitzia lowered her voice. "--Died?"

Sora shook his head. "If that was the case, I wouldn't be able to use my keyblade either," He said. After all, Sora had first met her in that strange limbo Final World.

She frowned, clearly also remembering the same thing he was. Strelitzia finally turned to look at him and said, "Well, maybe I'm not--"

Her voice was cut off by Sora's gummiphone going off. Sora jolted and tugged out his phone. He peered down at the screen and said, "Let's talk about this later? I bet we can get your keyblade back somehow. Right now we got another mission text thing." Sora tilted his head at it, wincing as he felt the timer burn itself into his hand.

The red message text read as follows: **_Cadoi put this puzzle together? Don't worry about the pieces, they aren't scattered throughout the City! You’ve got six hours to finish it._**

Sora gave it a blank stare. What did that even mean?? A puzzle?? Where?

Strelitzia frowned. "Can you put this puzzle together...? And what pieces? Are they attached to the message??" She looked baffled by the riddle but...Something about what she said made Sora blink.

"Wait, can you?" He asked her.

Raising her eyebrows at him, Strelitzia said, "Can I what?"

Sora shook his head. "No--I mean, when I said Cadoi, did you think I said can you?" Cadoi sounded like a name; whether it was for a person or place, Sora had no idea.

"Oh. Oh!" Strelitzia caught on. "So it's 'Cadoi put this puzzle together'... What does that even mean." She frowned at the phone, still looking confused.

He shrugged, equally confused. "I have no idea." It made absolutely zero sense.

The two of them stood there, pondering what to do, when a pair of girls approached them. One had bubble pink hair with a blue streak in the front. She seemed to be the more forward to the two, as she led her friend closer.

She cleared her throat. "Sorry to eavesdrop, but we heard you guys talking about a puzzle and Cadoi?" The girl asked.

Sora smiled at her. "No, it's fine! Uh--Yeah. We're doing some puzzles..." He looked down at his phone, resisting his urge to grimace at it.

The pink girl's eyes lit up. "So you're playing an ARG?? That sounds so cool..." She seemed excited and all Sora could do was wonder what an ARG was.

"...Maybe you need to go to Cadoi City?" The shy girl whispered, fiddled with her pretty blue sweater. "That place...It might have the puzzle you need to solve."

She looked away, apparently anxious by the trio of gazes on here. "S-sorry." The girl whispered again.

Strelitzia shook her head. "No, thank you! Um, we're not from Shibuya so we're not...well versed on everything here," She said.

This seemed to comfort the shy girl and she gave Strelitzia a shy smile. When Strelitzia smiled back, the girl flushed a deep pink. Sora squinted and shook his head. He's...not going to ask.

"Could you point us in the right direction?" Sora asked, walking towards the store doors. "Like, is it on the other side of the crossing or further down the road...?"

Pink Girl grinned. "Further down the road! They were smart not to put it so close to 104: They'd get no business there." She made a vague gesture in two directions. One was probably towards that 104 and the other in the direction they needed to go.

Considering the former was back towards the crossing, Sora assumed the latter was Cadoi City.

"Thanks a lot for the help!" Sora chirped. "I'm Sora--This is Strelitzia!" He gestured to the ginger girl next to him. She waved to them.

Shy Girl flushed and said, "I'm Naoko. T-that's Emi." She tugged on Pink Girl's sleeve. Pink Girl--aka Emi--gave them a thumbs up.

Strelitzia stuck her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "It was nice to meet you." She offered. "See you again some time, maybe?"

Naoko nodded rapidly, as if eager for that day to come soon. Sora gave his own farewell, followed by Emi's, and he and Strelitzia left the store. Ironically, it wasn't long before they spotted the duo, as not but a minute passed before they follow them out to the street as well.

"Oooh, where'd they go??" Emi groaned, standing next to Strelitzia. "I forgot to ask them what ARG they're playing!!"

Sora watched as Naoko's shy exterior seemed to evaporate with only the two of them. "Wasn't that what you were planning to ask them from the beginning? How did you forget?" Naoko wondered.

Emi puffed. "I was too excited to help them solve the riddle--not that it was a very hard one." She paused. "And you wanted to talk to the cute giiiiirl." Emi stuck her tongue out at Naoko as the other girl seemed to lose her cool.

"Cute girl?" Strelitzia muttered, flushing an even brighter pink that Naoko.

Sora grinned as the duo chatted more and then disappeared into the crowds. He wondered if they were heading to Cadoi City in hopes of finding them. "What's an ARG, though?" He mused.

His partner just kept repeating 'cute girl' to herself.

* * *

Sora stared at all the puzzle pieces spread out across the road. No one else noticed them. Understandable: They were probably in the same weird space he and Strelitzia were stuck in.

Didn't change the fact that he was having flashbacks to the golden coins in Port Royal from a year ago.

Strelitzia was kneeling and picking up pieces of the puzzle. She seemed almost as excited to do the puzzle and he grinned to himself. Yeah, alright, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Sora jogged over and followed her example, picking up the many pieces of the puzzle.

It took longer than Sora was happy with but it's not like he could stop time. Or, well, stop the timer ticking on their hands. Thinking about the hand, he rubbed it on his knee, as it he could scrub the red numbers off his hand.

Ha, yeah, if only. Sora made a face briefly before looking up at Strelitzia. "Did you get the rest of the pieces?" He asked as he placed his pieces of the puzzle in once spot.

"Mm, yeah. I have them." Strelitzia shifted as she knelt down to place her own pieces on the pile. She balanced them careful in her arms until they were all out of her grasp. "Where do we start?" She wondered, staring down at them.

Sora bounced and knelt down next to her. He said, "Usually, you start with the border pieces, right?" He picked up one of the corner pieces, which was thankfully set on top.

She tilted her head at the pile. Sora wondered if she had made a lot puzzles like this--His family had but that was partially because his mother loved puzzles. He's pretty sure it drove his dad and mom a little nuts.

"You seem to know what you're doing." Strelitzia nodded to the piece on Sora's hand and offered the two corner pieces she had found. "I can keep looking for border pieces and you start putting the rest together?" She asked.

Sora tilted his head in thought before nodding with a grin. "Yeah, sounds like a plan!" He took the corner pieces from Strelitzia and started placing them flat on the ground, trying to ignore the people walking over them.

Man, this was going to be a little difficult, huh?

He tugged on his hair before he snagged some of the pieces Strelitzia offered to him. The two of them slowly pieced together the puzzle and were left frustrated with each moment a crowd would step over it.

After the millionth time of this happening, Sora groaned. "This isn't working; not with all these people walking through us.” And the puzzle was too large for them to simply move somewhere else. That was even assuming they could move it from this area.

Sora clicked his tongue and knelt down to put the pieces back together. He'd just have to deal with the crowds. It'll be fine, he thought as he nodded to himself in determination. 

Strelitzia slipped closer. "I guess there's no way to move this, huh? At least they don't move the pieces." She added as they watched someone step on the corner of their puzzle.

"Yeah, that's true!" Sora perked up and dove into the puzzle piece pile. You always have to look on the bright side of things! Even if you might actually be dead.

He made a face: Naw, he can't be dead. Sora was pretty sure he'd know if he was dead, right? That was something kinda hard to forget.

Sora scratched his chin and started shifting through the puzzle pieces. He pointed out to Strelitzia which pieces went on her side of the puzzle and they slowly put the puzzle together. It took a while--mostly because it was primarily one color with what seemed to be black text--but once they had it together, they could clearly see what it was.

It was swirl of rainbows, black text stark against the color. The black text read: **Get Track Number 81 from Cadoi City.**

They both looked up at the building that was clearly labeled as Cadoi City. "Guess we don't have to go far, huh?" Sora grinned at Strelitzia. She grinned back.

Leaving the puzzle behind, the duo headed into the store. Like the previous store they had entered, the employees and other people inside seemed to be able to see them. Sora wandered what made the stores different. Did they have some sort of magic array or something?

Maybe he'll ask. Eventually.

Strelitzia approached a clerk at the desk. "Um, excuse me?" She murmured, tucking hair behind her ear. "But we're...looking for track number 81?"

Popping up next to her, he gave the clerk his best smile. Sora could tell Strelitzia was nervous about looking stupid but, well. If this clerk didn't know what they were talking about, they'd just have to ask someone else.

"Oh, are you the guys I'm supposed to give this to?" The clerk wondered. "My manager said to give this to whoever came in asking for Track Number 81." They held out a CD case.

The cover was clear, showing a purple CD inside. 81 was emblazoned across it in silver-y white. Guess that was why it was called Track Number 81, huh?

Sora accepted the CD case and turned to Strelitzia, handing it to her. "Got any idea on how to listen to this?" He asked her.

The clerk leaned forward and drew their attention back to them. "We, uh. I can let you listen to it on one of those headphone stations?" They pointed to where there were a lot of teenagers and young adults gathered around pillars. "I'll have to open it up but, uh. Yeah."

"Sure! Thank you!" Sora beamed at the clerk and they flushed a deep pink. They mumbled a 'no problem' and showed them over to one of the pillars that was, mostly, unoccupied.

Shooing away the other people there, the clerk opened up the pillar and gestured for the Track Number 81 case. Strelitzia passed it over and they put it inside the player. "Alright, you can just select that to play it." They pointed at the touch screen where the play button was.

Strelitzia gave the machine a somewhat mystified look before turning to look at Sora. "It's probably not harder to use than a gummi phone!" Sora chirped, reaching forward to press play.

With the headphones held up between them, they heard a deep and feminine voice mumble out from the other end. "If you're hearing this, you've won the mission for the day. You two have earned a special reward for doing so: A hint for tomorrow! Remember, the Cat sure does like its coffee."

They stared at the screen, barely noticing the timer disappearing from their hands. "What does that mean?" Strelitzia wondered.

Sora shrugged: It could mean anything! Heck, it could mean Pete was going to show up and they’d have to fight him. With coffee. Or something. It'd hardly be the weirdest thing Sora had ever done.

"Hey, Strelitzia?," He finally said.

She looked up at him from where she was fiddling with the CD case. "Yeah, Sora?" Strelitzia replied.

He hesitated before he laughed sheepishly. "Uh, nothing! We can talk about it later. When we're done with all these weird missions and all!" Sora gave her his best grin as he turned around, folding his arms behind his head.

Later, he would ask more about her keyblade. Maybe there was something bothering her and it was blocking her keyblade? Or maybe someone was stopping her keyblade from coming to her.

 _Either way_ , he thought as the two left the store with CD in hand, _It could be a lot worse._ Strelitzia could have no way to fight at all, for one. For all Sora knew, she came from a world that didn't have natural magic.

Huh. Maybe he should ask her about her home world. It could be a good topic, especially if he shared stories...of home...

Sora's vision darkened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> strelitzia, having a gay panic: cute girl??? cute girl!! me, a cute girl???  
> sora, a functional bi: lol, yeah, you're cute, did no one tell u
> 
> anyway, wow i was sitting on that update for awhile. I'm not...entirely satisfied with everything but i've rewritten it like 2-3 times now so like. take the closest to the best version I've for for you.
> 
> oh, yeah, and I have an [an askblog over here now](https://dont-think-twxce.tumblr.com/)! Feel free to send some asks to sora and streli! :3c


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